department stores may have lost business due to hurricane sandy, but home improvement chains may have picked up some business. we'll get two readings on inflation. if you take away food and energy, inflation should be tame. and in today's office politics, the "washington post'" eugene robinson was asked how much to qualify how much political capital the president has considering only a few million separate will imfrom mitt romney. can the president borrow the traz i have earned political capital and i intend to use it from george w. bush? >> well, those are certainly not words he should speak. yes, he has earned some political capital. but i think in order to do big things, and this is a president who doesn want to do big things he needs more political capital than he has now. he'll have to bring along a substantial portion of those 53 million people who voted against him. and so how does he do that. if he has difficulty in negotiating with republican elected officials, the standard technique is to kind of appeal over the head to their constituents and don't minimize the challenges an